


words never said before

by vaahtokarkki



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, some mutual comfort and a lot of talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 16:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15514083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaahtokarkki/pseuds/vaahtokarkki
Summary: A phone charger forgotten at the right place, a chance meeting, a shared coffin and a few shared secrets.





	words never said before

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! I was really excited to post this fic because it's a ship I've wanted to write for a long time. this prompt was given to me by an anon on twitter... thank you so much for giving me the inspiration to finally write some reikaos <3 I hope you all like this!

Kaoru stays late at the school, helping Kanata clean up a few tanks at the club, and he's just about to leave when he remembers he forgot his phone charger at the light music club. He heads there after bidding goodbye to Kanata, and to his relief, finds the door open.

It's not that big of a surprise, because he isn't sure if he's _ever_ seen this door locked.

Kaoru enters, flicks the lights on, and – someone inside the room _groans_. Kaoru jumps, but immediately recognises where the sound came from.

"S-sakuma-san?" Kaoru asks, and inside the coffin, Rei groans again. "You're at the school late. Still sleeping?"

"Mm... no", Rei replies. "Before you cruelly turned on the lights, I was peacefully staring at the ceiling. It will be hours until I fall asleep."

Kaoru, walking to where he remembers charging his phone earlier, stops in his tracks.

"Are you saying you intend to be here until that?" he asks carefully, and then resumes walking.

"Well, yes, I do –" Rei begins, but then pauses. He must have realised what he just slipped.

"What you mean is, you were gonna sleep at school."

Rei is quiet for a moment, and then he sits up in the coffin. His eyes are tired but sharp as they inspect Kaoru.

"Kaoru-kun shouldn't concern himself with someone like me." The words are slow, calculated, and sting surprisingly much.

"Sakuma-san, please, I'm just worried." Kaoru plucks his charger from the wall, and then directs his steps towards the coffin. "Wouldn't you get cold? Lonely? Are you sure you should...?"

"The coffin is very comfortable. I should know, I sleep here every day. You don't need to worry, it's not the first time I spend the night..."

 _"Please"_ , Kaoru mutters. He's in front of the coffin now, and places his hands on his hips. "You sleep here regularly?"

Rei sighs, and then attempts to sink through the bottom of the coffin.

"You needn't concern yourself over it. Kaoru-kun – it's _fine_."

"Then at least let me stay here so you won't be alone."

The proposal surprises Kaoru as much as it does Rei – he was thinking about it, and the words just slipped out –

Kaoru is about to speak, brush it off as a joke, but the look on Rei's face stops him. Surprise fades into something else, more like an examination, and suddenly Kaoru feels extremely vulnerable under those red eyes.

Kaoru swallows and keeps his own gaze steady. Rei is looking for _something_ , and Kaoru doesn't know what, but he hopes he doesn't disappoint.

"Kaoru-kun", Rei's mouth twitches, the smallest indicator of a smile, "surely, you don't mean that?"

Kaoru could take this chance to back away, to go home and pretend he never suggested this in the first place. But he looks at Rei, and thinks about how lonely the coffin must be – no matter how comfortable – thinks about Rei lying in darkness, for whatever reason, and he knows. He can't leave Rei like this. If Rei is to stay the night at school, Kaoru wants to make sure at least he doesn't have to be alone.

"I mean it", he replies, narrowing his eyes in a challenge. He stares Rei down, and just for a moment, Rei stares him back – but then he throws his head back instead, laughing in the way that makes his fangs glint in his mouth.

"You're really something, aren't you? You've gone and surprised this old man." A surge of pride sparks through Kaoru at the words, but Rei isn't done talking. "I really didn't think you'd offer. You know, with only one coffin."

"What? Of course there's only one coffin –" Kaoru pauses mid-sentence. _Of course_ there's only one coffin, which means Rei was trying to say something else –

"I know you probably don't want to hear this from me, but you get this adorable look on your face when you're deep in thought."

Rei leans against the edge of the coffin, and Kaoru blinks, then blushes – Rei is teasing him, for sure, and even worse, it's _working_. For a moment, Kaoru forgets to conceal his expression, and then he gets what Rei meant with the coffin thing, and his face heats up even more while his eyes widen.

"We'll – we'll just have to share it."

He didn't mean to say that while still clearly affected by Rei's earlier words, but he did, and Rei's eyebrows shoot up.

"What did I just say? Another surprise." Rei tilts his head, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "Well – if you're _sure_ about that..."

Rei goes quiet, eyes back on inspecting Kaoru, and Kaoru understands; Rei is giving him one more chance to leave, in case his offer was the effect of a temporary lapse in judgment – but no, at this point, Kaoru doesn't intend to back away. He doesn't know why Rei wants to sleep at the school, but he's not leaving him alone.

"Yeah. It's no big deal, right? It's... spacey." Kaoru glances inside the coffin. It's spacey, all right, but not as spacey that two people could fit in without touching.

"All right. Do come in, Kaoru-kun." Rei pats the edge of the coffin, then sits back. He's smiling again, like he was just waiting to see whether Kaoru actually does it or chickens out at the last moment.

Kaoru takes off his shoes, and then, _very_ carefully, climbs in on the opposite side from Rei.

"So..." Kaoru mutters. The flaw in the plan is that it's too early to sleep yet. Fortunately, Rei seems to have an idea to pass the time.

"Hmm... humans do need to eat, don't they?"

"Not commenting on the human thing, we _both_ should eat something."

"Such a hassle", Rei sighs. "Well, if you insist. Would you be a dear and visit the infirmary? Sagami-kun keeps tomato juice in the fridge there."

"The place is probably locked", Kaoru says, his mind not in his own words, but very much in the term of endearment Rei just used on him – _and how little he minds it._

"Right. Wait a second..." Rei digs around in his pocket, then pulls out a key.

"For the infirmary?" Kaoru asks as Rei hands the key to him.

"For every door", Rei makes a vague handwave.

_"Every door?"_

"Not lockers and such, but otherwise, yes. If you steal food, do take it from the student council room. They deserve it."

"Huh", Kaoru eyes the key. "What if someone's in?"

"Knock first and if someone opens, say you have club business", Rei shrugs. "They hate dealing with the marine bio club."

"They do?"

"Shinkai-kun never fills the paperwork", Rei explains. "He says it's a bother."

"That makes sense, actually. You sure about letting me have this?"

"The price of borrowing it is that bottle of tomato juice", Rei grins. "Or, two – no, wait, he'll definitely notice if you take two –"

"Just one?" Kaoru can't stop himself from smiling.

"Just one", Rei sighs.

"Don't worry, I'll take something from the student council room on the way back, if that makes you feel better. You sure they don't have cameras or something?"

"Probably... not."

"You don't sound so certain."

"I _hope_ they don't have cameras in there, I've been stealing tea for Hibiki-kun for months now. You'd think they'd have brought that up by now..."

"Maybe they're waiting for the right moment to reveal your horrible crime", Kaoru quirks an eyebrow.

"Worry not, all they would see is tea leaving the room. Cameras don't catch vampires, you see." Rei looks almost proud in himself, and Kaoru chuckles.

"That's not true, I have a lot of pictures of you."

"Kaoru-kun", Rei bats his eyelashes, "I never knew. That's flattering..."

"I'm leaving", Kaoru informs, hastily pulling himself out of the coffin.

 

 

By the time Kaoru comes back, Rei has retreated to the bottom of the coffin again.

"Here, I got yours", Kaoru holds out the bottle, and Rei scrambles up to reach it.

"Thank you, Kaoru-kun. You're so good to me." Rei takes the bottle. "Did everything go smoothly?"

"Kanata-kun keeps fish at the club room fridge, so I had some of that. I'll get him more later. No problems with the infirmary, and then..."

Victoriously, Kaoru pulls out a small bag from his pants pocket.

"Oh, well done", Rei grins. "I take it no one was in."

"Not a soul", Kaoru tosses the bag to Rei. "There's some candy, and a few cookies. At least eat them, okay?"

"I didn't mean, steal something for _me_ ", Rei picks up a cookie from the bag.

"They're a gift, so you can't give them back."

"Right", Rei grumbles. He stares at the cookie, then looks at Kaoru, eyes glinting. "Maybe I'd eat this if you fed it to me by hand."

Kaoru sighs. His face warming up is involuntary, but more importantly, he seems to be very close to his goal.

"Would that really make you eat it?" Kaoru asks, brows raised, and then reaches out with one hand. Rei blinks, having clearly expected a different reaction, and – _he_ blushes, instead.

"I'm on it", Rei mutters, and takes a bite out of the cookie.

 

 

Somewhere within the next hour, the mood shifts. Everything turns more quiet as the sky outside the windows darkens, and slowly, Kaoru moves back to the coffin, shedding off his uniform jacket as he goes.

He sits opposite of Rei, who has finally accepted Kaoru's gift and eats a few gummy-like candies. Kaoru plays around on his phone, exhausting the battery, and he doesn't realise he's begun to yawn frequently until Rei comments on it.

"You should get some sleep."

Kaoru's attention snaps away from his phone. Rei is looking at him in the way that feels like he's searching something, the way that makes Kaoru feel incredibly vulnerable.

"What about you?" he asks.

"You know I don't sleep so early."

"Yeah, but..." Kaoru puts his phone away, and takes another look at Rei. "I'll stay up with you."

Rei is quiet for a while, and then he shakes his head, smiling sadly.

"You don't have to. You're already doing so much, being here with me..."

The indication that Rei _is_ glad he's here causes something to flutter in Kaoru's chest, and he shakes his own head, more forcefully than Rei did.

"No, I... I wanted to keep you company. So I will. Cmon, I'll stay up with you. We can... talk?"

"You want to talk?" Rei raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah! I mean, we're unitmates, right? We're..." the next word gets tangled on his tongue, and his mouth closes and opens for a while as he tries to choke it out. "We're friends... right?"

"Do you think of me as a friend?"

Kaoru pauses, realises – he doesn't know. He doesn't know what the criteria for a friend is, doesn't know if he considers _anyone_ a friend. Kanata? Chiaki? Izumi?

"I would like to."

His throat is dry, his hands shake, and he wonders – does he look silly to Rei? Utterly nervous at the thought of having a _friend?_ But no, Rei's smile is soft, almost – tender, and Kaoru forgets how to breathe, because Rei doesn't smile like that in practise, or on stage, and Kaoru thinks, he shouldn't – he shouldn't waste a smile that precious on someone like Kaoru.

"Then let's talk. Why would you rather be here, stuck in a coffin, than at home in your warm bed?"

The question is more personal than Kaoru expected – or maybe it isn't, but his answer to it will be. Does it matter? He said he wants to talk, so he has to decide to be honest tonight.

"I don't like being home anyway", he replies quietly. This isn't something he just _tells_ people, but it's probably not that difficult to guess, definitely not for someone as observant as Rei. "Not when it doesn't feel like a home."

Rei leans forward, tilts his head, and there's a sad look in his eyes. Kaoru instantly regrets sharing even this much, because the last thing he wants to do is to make Rei sad.

"Why doesn't it?" Rei speaks slowly, carefully, like he wasn't sure if he's allowed to ask it. Kaoru averts his eyes, but for some reason, he feels okay talking, so that's what he does, gives away the words he doesn't remember if he's ever said to anyone.

"Well, you know... because mom isn't there."

"I'm sorry", Rei sighs, and Kaoru shakes his head.

"No, it's... it's been a while."

"Does that make it hurt less?"

"I don't know", Kaoru says honestly.

"It's okay to not be okay, Kaoru-kun", the line should feel like it's from a bad self-help book, but somehow, from Rei's mouth, it's _sincere_. "I'm not okay, either."

"Do you want to..." Kaoru's tongue is parchment, and he's never talked about these kind of things with Rei, but maybe it's what they both need right now. "...talk about it?"

"Sometimes", Rei admits. "Would you listen?"

"Yeah", Kaoru nods without hesitation. "You've done so much for me, I... no, that's not all of it, I... if you've got a burden, I want to share it. I know I haven't been the ideal member for our unit, but..."

"Oh, Kaoru-kun", Rei laughs softly. "You're here now, and I don't have to be alone. Isn't that enough?"

Kaoru doesn't have an answer.

 

 

They talk for an hour, two, maybe three. Towards the end, it becomes a blur, and they shift from those serious topics into more lighthearted ones. Kaoru remembers telling Rei about how the ocean glitters when he goes there by sunset, and he remembers Rei fetching him a blanket when he starts shivering from being too cold. He remembers he cried at some point, and he doesn't remember what Rei said to him then, but afterwards, they were much closer, sitting side by side so the blanket could be draped over both of them.

He remembers that even though Rei's body temperature is low in comparison to his, he felt much warmer after that.

Then, there was silence, and Rei's hand in his hair – he thinks – and Kaoru leaning on Rei's shoulder, and then, nothing, because he fell asleep.

 

 

Kaoru wakes up warm and cozy, limbs tangled with Rei's, Rei who is fast asleep and holding him, and the feeling is so incredibly comfortable that Kaoru doesn't protest, and instead, snuggles closer, buries his face against Rei's chest, breathes in his scent, wraps an arm around his waist.

He wonders if this is okay, but – if they fell asleep like this, then Rei made the decision to hold him, so – Kaoru closes his eyes, and enjoys the comfort of another's body against his.

He can't remember the last time he felt this safe, and he drifts off again in little time.


End file.
